Taking It Outside

How outdoor dining brought new life to the Outer Banks restaurant scene.

By Ann Wood / Photo above: Perched above the Atlantic on the Outer Banks Fishing Pier, Fish Heads Bar & Grill in Nags Head offers one of the Outer Banks’ most distinctive outdoor dining experiences, with fresh seafood and unparalleled ocean views from tables set directly over the water.

Today, an outdoor bar, backyard patio or sprawling deck feels perfectly at home on the Outer Banks. There are live bands and lawn games, drinks while you wait for a table, pet-friendly patios and spaces designed to make an evening out feel like part of the vacation itself.

But outdoor dining wasn’t always such an option.

When Gus Zenovis bought the former Bad Barracuda’s building in Nags Head and began developing Mulligan’s in 2006 and 2007, an outdoor deck was part of his vision from the beginning. At the time, outdoor dining wasn’t permitted in Nags Head.

His argument to the town for permitting his deck was simple, “If they can sit outside on a sidewalk in Raleigh, they can sit on a deck in Nags Head and overlook the ocean.”

Eventually, Gus built his big deck and it grew to include a bar and live music. Soon, other restaurants began developing outdoor spaces of their own. Zenovis is proud of the role Mulligan’s played in that evolution. “I’m really glad that we were able to open the door for everybody to do that,” he says.

With its laid-back backyard setting, Bonzer Shack in Kill Devil Hills, captures the feel of a beach-town hangout, with outdoor tables, cornhole, live music, great drinks and a welcoming crew that keeps the atmosphere casual and friendly.

For Gus and his wife Shannon, both owners of Mulligan’s at the time, and now owners of Snow Bird in Nags Head, the reasoning was always tied to the destination itself.

“People come to the Outer Banks for one reason—for the ocean,” he says. Whether there was an ocean view or not, he believed people simply wanted to be outside. “That’s what they’re here for.”

Then came the summer of 2020.

Outdoor dining went from an amenity to a lifeline.

Jay Ammons, now a co-owner of Bonzer Shack, was working at Mama Kwan’s when COVID restrictions changed virtually every aspect of restaurant operations. As restrictions began to ease, outdoor seating became one of the ways restaurants could begin serving customers again.

“One of the things that probably saved the restaurant industry on the Outer Banks was allowing outside seating,” Ammons says.

Restaurants adapted. Tents went up. Tables moved outside. Parking lots, patios and fenced areas became extensions of dining rooms.

And then something interesting happened: customers liked it.

What began as a solution to a crisis became a new way of thinking about the restaurant experience.

A favorite gathering spot in Kitty Hawk, TRiO Restaurant & Market offers a more intimate take on Outer Banks outdoor dining, with a charming patio, casually inventive food and an impressive selection of cocktails, wine, beer and charcuterie.

Today, Bonzer Shack’s outdoor space expands the restaurant’s footprint while giving guests somewhere to relax, grab a cocktail, hear live entertainment or play cornhole. And Ammons says outdoor spaces aren’t necessarily just additional dining rooms anymore.

“You have the outside aspect of dining where not everybody’s dining,” he says. “They’re just having cocktails and they’re hanging out and waiting in the outdoor area for an indoor table.”

That ability to turn the wait itself into part of the evening has reshaped restaurants across the beach. Backyards at the Outer Banks Brewing Station, Blue Moon Beach Grill, and Tortugas’ Lie have become gathering spaces in their own right. Some feature music and games; others create landscaped, fenced retreats. Lucky 12 has gotten particularly creative, transforming its outdoor space over Halloween and Christmas into themed attractions where outdoor seating can be in a haunted shack or christmas ornament.

Perhaps nowhere has outdoor space changed a business more dramatically than at Fish Heads Bar & Grill.

When Gary Oliver saw the fishing pier business changing as the new Jennette’s Pier was being built around 2008, he and his wife decided the Outer Banks Fishing Pier needed to change, too. They started modestly: a small deck, tables, a tent and little bar.

Oliver remembers putting out a sign advertising 10-cent shrimp for happy hour on opening day. He had already warned his wife not to expect him in the kitchen.
“Well, that night I was in there steaming shrimp. And we were packed,” he recalls. “I told my wife, ‘I think we hit on something.’”

They had.

The operation grew, his son Ryan joined them behind the bar, and Fish Heads eventually became something quite different from the business Oliver had owned for decades.

“I used to have a fishing pier with a snack bar. Now I’ve got a bar and grill with a fishing pier.”

Oliver added another element he had long envisioned, live music. Inspired by memories of the old Casino in Nags Head and the beach-music acts that played there, Fish Heads began offering nightly music without a cover charge. Music remains a major part of the experience.

But perhaps the best measure of the outdoor space is what happens when people first see it.

Guests walk through the old pier house wondering what the fuss is about, Oliver says. “Then they walk through that door out there on the deck, and you see a smile. It lights up. It’s special.”

Even the wait has become part of the experience. A second bar was added for guests waiting for tables, adding to the experience since this area also has an ocean view.

“If you’ve got a wait, you might as well sit and have a good time,” Oliver says. With music playing and a drink in hand, “the wait doesn’t seem as long.”

Other restaurants are finding their own versions of that formula. Jimmy’s Seafood Buffet grew from five patio tables in 2019 to a 60-seat pavilion, backyard games, live music and a petting zoo on select nights, while dramatically reducing waits for indoor seating.

Few places capture the spirit of the Outer Banks quite like Miller’s Waterfront Restaurant. With open-air seating along the Roanoke Sound and dock access for visiting boaters, it’s the perfect spot to enjoy a meal surrounded by coastal scenery.

At Mike Dianna’s Grill Room in Corolla, a deck once devoted primarily to drinks and music has evolved into a place where guests can have breakfast, lunch or dinner outside. “We started doing lunch and brunch out there,” says owner Meghann Pauls. Today, the outdoor area allows the restaurant to serve all three meals outside, while dogs are welcome and games give families room to relax. Some guests settle in for hours, turning a meal into what Pauls describes as “a fun little party and a good way for them to start their vacation.”

Black Pelican, meanwhile, has evolved their outdoor area from a simple deck in the late 1990s allowing drinks while people waited for a table, to covered outdoor dining and a larger fenced gathering space used for events such as oyster roasts.

At Trio in Kitty Hawk, outdoor dining offers another way for guests to enjoy a meal, whether they’re bringing along a dog, looking for a little more privacy or simply want to be outside. Managing partner Kenneth Hyman acknowledges that the experience is weather dependent, obviously part of the nature of dining outdoors. But when the temperature and coastal breezes cooperate, he says, “nothing is better than alfresco dining!”

That may explain why the idea has endured.

While COVID accelerated the transformation, what followed has become something much bigger. Outdoor spaces may add tables and increase capacity, but their value extends well beyond the number of guests a restaurant can seat. They give families room to spread out, welcome four-legged companions, make long waits more enjoyable and create space for live music, games and gatherings.

In many cases, they have changed the experience of going out altogether. A drink while waiting for a table can turn into an hour spent listening to music. Dinner can stretch into an evening while the kids play nearby. And a restaurant tucked along the highway can offer a little escape just steps from the dining room.

Perhaps most importantly, outdoor dining feels particularly suited to a place where so much of the experience is already centered around being outside. The beach, the breeze and the casual pace are part of what brings people to the Outer Banks in the first place. Restaurants have simply found more ways to make them part of the meal.

And after all, Gus Zenovis was onto something all those years ago.

People come to the Outer Banks to be outside.

Author: Ann Wood